WThe Kipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks, Qipchaq or Polovtsians, were a Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as part of the Second Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region from where they expanded over the following centuries, first as part of the Kimek Khanate and later as part of a confederation with the Cumans. There were groups of Kipchaks in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Syr Darya and Siberia. The Cuman–Kipchak confederation was conquered by the Mongols in the early 13th century.
WAs-Salih Salah ad-Din Salih ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun (28 September 1337–1360/61, better known as as-Salih Salih, was the Mamluk sultan in 1351–1354. He was the eighth son of Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad to accede to the sultanate. He was largely a figurehead, with real power held by the senior Mamluk emirs, most prominently Emir Taz an-Nasiri.
WThe Bahri dynasty or Bahriyya Mamluks was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic origin that ruled the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate from 1250 to 1382. They followed the Ayyubid dynasty, and were succeeded by a second Mamluk dynasty, the Burji dynasty.
WThe Battle of Beroia was fought in 1122 between the Pechenegs and the Byzantine Empire under Emperor John II Komnenos in what is now Bulgaria. The Byzantine army won the battle, resulting in the disappearance of the Pechenegs as a distinct, independent people.
WThe name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a Turkic confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Turkic nomadic tribes: the Cumans and the Kipchaks. Cumania was known in Islamic sources as Desht-i Qipchaq, which means "Steppe of the Kipchaks"; or "foreign land sheltering the Kipchaks", in the Turkic languages. Russian sources have referred to Cumania as the "Polovtsian Steppe", or the "Polovtsian Plain".
WShams al-Din Ildeniz, Eldigüz or Shamseddin Eldeniz was an atabeg of the Seljuq empire and founder of the dynasty of Eldiguzids, atabegs of Azerbaijan, which held sway over Caucasian Albania, Iranian Azerbaijan, and most of northwestern Persia from the second half of the 12th century to the early decades of the 13th.
WThe Kimek–Kipchak confederation was a medieval Turkic state formed by seven peoples, including the Yemeks and Kipchaks, in the area between the Ob and Irtysh rivers. From the end of the 9th century to 1050, it existed as a khaganate, and as a khanate until the Mongol conquest in the early 13th century.
WKurgan stelae or Balbals are anthropomorphic stone stelae, images cut from stone, installed atop, within or around kurgans, in kurgan cemeteries, or in a double line extending from a kurgan. The stelae are also described as "obelisks" or "statue menhirs".
WMamluk is a term most commonly referring to non-Arab, ethnically diverse slave-soldiers and freed slaves to which were assigned military and administrative duties, serving the ruling Arab dynasties in the Muslim world.
WGalymbek Zhumatov is a Kazakh writer, poet, member of the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan, and the founder of the newspaper Shahar.